


Swallowed in the Sea

by Tarlan



Category: seaQuest
Genre: Drama, Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-15
Updated: 2009-05-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:39:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Facing imminent death had a way of putting things into perspective, and one of those things was his feelings for Ben Krieg.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swallowed in the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJs: MMOM2009 - Day 15 and SmallFandomFlsh #25. Wind

The rain was heavier, the seas rocking the life raft as thunder crashed overhead. It was hard to believe that only an hour earlier they had been sitting in warm sunshine but the eye of the hurricane was moving on without them. Jonathan watched as Kristin shuffled across the raft to Lucas's side, knowing she was providing exactly what Lucas needed right now; a mother figure to comfort him.

His eyes flicked to the man seated beside him. Despite the circumstances they were in now, Krieg had proved an excellent pilot of Launch MR-7. He'd done everything Jonathan had asked of him when they hit that freshwater sinkhole and sank like a brick, with barely a moment's hesitation even when Jonathan told him to drop the survival pod. It had worked and they'd lightened the Launch sufficiently to escape the sinkhole but they had barely made it back to the surface. Moments after abandoning the Launch, it had been swallowed by the sea; its hull too damaged from the deep water pressure to seal against the ocean, and it had left them stranded on the surface in just this life raft.

Krieg was cold and wet, and though he hid it well, he was afraid. They were all afraid, because this was just the start. The seas would become rougher as the storm intensified; the swells could rise as high as five storey buildings, and Jonathan could barely imagine how they could survive each swell and the trough that followed.

Cast adrift in the middle of a hurricane, his reasons for finding fault with Krieg seemed so insignificant now. He knew part of it was from knowing Krieg had cheated on Katie - Jonathan's good friend and Krieg's ex-wife. Katie had been very tight-lipped over the affair, making Jonathan suspect it was someone they both knew. He'd been right, though the identity had both surprised him and explained why Katie had made no attempt at reconciliation.

Krieg's lover had been Nathan Bridger's son, Robert.

Another part of his irritation was Krieg's attitude towards his posting on-board the seaQuest. Jonathan knew a Supply and Morale Officer was a different animal to the majority of UEO personnel, that the position tended to attract individuals of a shrewder nature; those willing to bend a few rules almost to breaking point if necessary. However, Jonathan wasn't a rule-breaker. If anything, he was a martinet in comparison to Krieg, and even Bridger had told him to loosen up a little if he ever hoped to command his own ship or submarine. Jonathan knew Bridger tended to turn a blind eye towards Krieg's activities but that didn't stop him from disliking the way Krieg took advantage of his position to supply the crew with black market goods, even if it was all harmless stuff. It was the principle of it.

Yet, Jonathan had to admit that his main reason for holding Krieg at arms' length was purely personal. Despite all his flaws, Krieg was charismatic and good looking, and Jonathan hated the way his stomach flipped and his mouth dried whenever Krieg smiled at him. Problem was, Krieg tended to smile a lot. Until now, it had seemed so very wrong to be attracted to the man; to feel the desire coiling in his belly at the very thought of touching him. If for no other reason, there was Katie to consider, and the UEO regulations on chain of command and fraternization.

Yet, all of that seemed meaningless now when faced with nature's fury.

They'd all seen lightning strike the communications buoy and had felt the raw energy that briefly electrified the water. For all his vaunted genius, Lucas had been too focused on his fear for Darwin, believing the dolphin had been killed during the lightning strike, to contemplate what must have happened to the seaQuest when two million volts of electricity traveled down the buoy's tether to the submarine.

Jonathan knew, and so did Krieg, that it was likely the seaQuest had lost all power, with the conduits fried or melted. They also knew the winds had picked up beyond the safety limits of the hurricane chasers, sending all planes and surface rescue vessels back to safer skies and waters. With seaQuest dead in the water, Jonathan knew their chances of being rescued before the full force of the hurricane hit them had fallen to practically zero.

Kristin was leaning in closer to Lucas now but the wind whipped away her words so he had no idea what she might be saying to the boy. He glanced sideways and saw the naked longing for comfort in Krieg's eyes; a mirror to his own need.

Carefully, he wrapped his arm around Krieg's shoulders, finding their faces only inches apart when Krieg turned to him. Dark hair was plastered to his skull, the rain running in rivulets down his face, but all Jonathan could see was the wide, blue eyes staring straight into his own. Scared. Definitely scared, even though Krieg had put on a brave act for Lucas earlier.

The moment lengthened, and neither of them seemed willing to take the next step until the forces of nature interceded on their behalf. A swell rocked the raft and the distance closed between them, cold lips brushing, shocking both of them back to their present predicament. They pulled apart with reluctance when Kristin shifted back towards them, and Krieg... No, he thought. Not Krieg. Ben... Ben scanned the horizon once more in some vain hope of rescue.

When the first of the massive, hurricane-driven waves hit them, Jonathan could only yell at the others to inflate their vests and hold on tight even as he felt himself lifted out of the raft and thrown into the freezing sea. The churning of the water disoriented him, twisting him one way and then the other, bubbles racing in too many directions to give him time to figure out which way was up. A sudden tightness around his body and a sharp tug shocked him into exhaling more precious air, his head breaking the surface moments later just as he gasped for another breath. By the time he realized something was dragging him through the water, hands were grabbing at his sodden clothing, and he coughed hard as he was hauled back into the relative safety of the raft. Kristin's idea of tying them all to the life raft had saved him from being swept away in the fast currents, but Ben's strong arms had pulled him back to safety.

They all held on tight as they were swept along by a series of massive waves, clinging to the sides and to each other desperately, leaving all of them too exhausted to bail out the raft when they were granted a small reprieve; a slight lull in the storm. Jonathan kept a light grip on Ben's arm as they floated along, the rain still pouring down on their upturned faces.

Rescue came suddenly from below; lights from the seaQuest illuminating them from the depths as she rose beneath them. The rest seemed anticlimactic as they were taken from the life raft one at a time. Lucas first at Kristin insistence, because he was still a child in all their eyes. Jonathan waited until last because the others were his responsibility, only relaxing once Ben disappeared inside the seaQuest, safe at last.

***

The tapping on his door hours later brought Jonathan out of a restless sleep, dreaming of huge waves swallowing him and dragging him down into the depths. Although his body was aching and tired, he knew his mind was still working too hard, unable to stop circling over his fears of drowning before making his peace with Ben, and of the damage he'd found on-board following his rescue.

There was little he could do about Ben even if he was willing to break a few rules for the first time in his career, just to have him. The decision had to be Ben's, made out of want rather than out of fear of imminent death.

The seaQuest was another matter entirely. They had rescued the trapped tourist submersible from the bottom of the sinkhole, but the seaQuest had been crippled in the process. It was exactly as Jonathan had feared earlier, with most of the electronics fried by the power surge through the buoy's tether, though he had to admire Bridger's quick thinking of using one of the WSKRS to power the seaQuest one station at a time; it had saved those kids on the submersible, and it had saved them too.

He pushed out of bed and opened the door, expecting to find some junior officer seeking permission to perform another repair. Instead, he found Ben waiting on the other side of the door; a crisp, white bandage stark against the lightly tanned skin of his forehead. Jonathan had forgotten that Ben had taken a blow to his head when the Launch's hatch had failed to open securely.

"You okay?"

"I'm fine. I was just... passing and wanted to get an update on the repairs."

Even though Ben had every reason to need that information as part of his position as Supply Officer, Jonathan knew it was a feeble excuse to come knocking at his door at this time of night when they had both been ordered to rest. He could tell by the way Ben's eyes slid down his body before glancing away to the left, refusing to look him directly in the face, that he had come for another reason entirely.

"Come in," Jonathan ordered gently, opening the bulkhead door wider and stepping aside to allow Ben access before closing it behind them.

Once inside, Ben seemed nervous for all of a few seconds before that familiar and hated smirk twitched his lips. For the first time, Jonathan recognized it for what it was: a defense mechanism. The revelation threw him for a moment, stripping away the dislike and making him look beneath the smirk to the insecure man hiding behind the mask. As he suspected, the mask slipped the moment Jonathan stepped forward and pressed Ben back against the closed door. Ben tensed, eyes widening as Jonathan leaned in and kissed him. This time it was no momentary brush of lips. This time he put all of his desire into the kiss, letting his hands frame Ben's face, and waiting until Ben relaxed against him, welcoming the kiss before he drew back.

He'd dispensed with his own uniform hours earlier, sleeping in a faded t-shirt and boxers, so it was easy to palm his erection through the thin cotton. Ben licked his lips, mesmerized by the sight of Jonathan's hand on his cock, his hands making aborted gestures as if he itched to replace Jonathan's fingers with his own. Jonathan stripped off his t-shirt, casting it aside in an unusually careless gesture, having bitten back on the urge to fold it up and place it carefully on the chair close to his bed.

While one hand slipped beneath the waistband of his boxers, the other rubbed over his chest, playing with a nipple until it was taut with need.

"You want this?" He squeezed his hard cock, staring straight at Ben to gauge his reaction, and smiled when the desire-heated gaze finally rose to meet his eyes.

Ben nodded, fumbling with the zipper of his jump suit, and stumbling out of boots and clothing until he was down to t-shirt and boxers. Ben's erection was straining against the thin material and, without any embarrassment, he pushed the boxers down and took himself in hand. Blue eyes closed momentarily in pleasure at that first touch, lips curling into a smile as he stared across at Jonathan.

Jonathan knew it would be so easy to push aside his own boxers and simply watch each other jerk off but he filed that pleasurable thought away for another time. Right now, he wanted to touch a cock that wasn't his own; wanted to wrap his fingers around another man's erection and feel someone else's hand around him. Ben must have read the desire in his eyes though for they stepped forward together, hands reaching as mouths met in another passionate kiss, neither holding back as they thrust into each other's hands.

It was over too soon; desire, too long denied, spilling over busy fingers while cries of passion were muffled in a kiss.

They fell to the bed, sated and exhausted.

This time, when he slipped back into a desperately needed sleep, Jonathan dreamed of clear skies, the color of Ben's eyes; the smooth waves on which he floated were the rise and fall of Ben's chest beneath him, and the gentle wind was Ben's soft breathing.

The storm was over.

END


End file.
